This customer service resume example will get you hired

Career Builder

Customer service is all about connection. It’s about talking to someone to understand what they’re looking for, even if they don’t know it’s what they’re looking for. It’s about anticipating a customer’s concerns, alleviating their fears, addressing their frustrations. In other words, customer service happens in small, interpersonal moments. It’s not something you can easily quantify. So how are you supposed to put it on a resume?

That's what we're here to answer.

The good news is that writing a customer service resume is not nearly as difficult as doing the actual work of a customer service representative. If you’ve got the communication skills, professionalism, and cool-headedness it takes to succeed in customer service, writing a resume will be cake. All you have to do is copy the customer service resume example below and follow these steps to make it your own.

How to write a customer service resume that will get you hired

Before we jump straight to the sample customer service resume, let's walk through the steps to making one shine:

Start with a clear and concise summary

If there was a trading card of you, your professional summary would appear beneath your picture. The goal is to give a hiring manager a quick, easy-to-understand pitch of who you are professionally. Things to keep in mind:

Keep it to one or two sentences.
Search the job description for keywords, like skills the hiring manager is looking for, or primary job duties. Using keywords will ensure that you’re hitting all the notes the hiring manager wants to hear. It’ll also help your resume make it through the applicant tracking systems many companies use to weed out poor fits. That’s right: your resume will likely have to get past a computer before it makes it to a human being. That computer will probably look for keywords from the job description, so use as many as apply to you.
If you have years of experience in a certain field, you should highlight that in your summary. But you don’t need a lot of experience to pull this off. Take a look at the example below. John Jones writes that he’s “highly motivated,” a definite plus for customer service workers. The job description mentioned “strong written and verbal communication skills,” which John learned as a communications major, so he highlighted them in his summary. Consider which of your strengths best fit the job description and weave them into your resume.

Lead with your customer service skills

Resume skills are the most important factor in hiring today. Earlier this year, we teamed up with our friends at The Harris Poll to survey hiring managers and workers about the state of the working world, and we turned up some fascinating insights for job seekers:

Eighty-five percent of hiring managers say they’ll focus less on an applicant’s past job titles and more on their skills and experience.
Soft skills, like communication, organization, and time management, are superpowers. The overwhelming majority of hiring managers says they are important; more than half of hiring managers say they are very important.
Eighty-eight percent say they hire based on soft skills, then provide job-specific training.
Bottom line: What you can do is more important than your last job title.

So, what’s all this mean for you and your resume? It means that you should lead with your skills and abilities. First, make a list of all your strengths. They might be specific skills, like proficiency in certain computer programs, or broader, like written communication, interpersonal skills, time management, or organization. Which of these skills is relevant to the job you’re applying for? Does the job description mention any of them? If not, take a look at the job description and try to reverse engineer the necessary skills from the primary duties of the role. If you’re going to spend a lot of time with customers on the phone, for example, you can deduce that verbal communication is important.

Take a look at the skills section in the resume template below. Notice that John highlights his background in customer service not just in the work experience section, but here, under skills, as well. Why? Because customer service is the number one most in-demand resume skill, followed by sales, business development, marketing, and relationship building.

Hiring managers in a variety of industries need employees who can work with clients calmly and professionally, who can help stakeholders feel comfortable and informed. That makes customer service a highly transferrable skill. You can use it to hop from a customer service role into another job in a different field in the future. Trust us, any recruiter will be glad to see that you can thrive in an interpersonal, client-facing setting. In fact, we've put together a list of six customer service skills that will get you hired.

You should prepare to speak to each skill you include on your resume. In an interview, your hiring manager might directly ask you how you used a skill in a previous position. If they don’t, pepper stories about how you successfully used your skills into your conversation. John might illustrate his communication skills by talking about his experience as a restaurant host. To highlight his data entry skill, he might talk about when he booked reservations.

Finally, if you’re applying to a job that requires or would benefit from certain certifications, training courses or the like, highlight these in your skills section as well. For example, a professional driver might highlight their commercial driver’s license here.

Be specific with your work experience

The work experience section of your customer service resume is an opportunity to tell a story. Notice that John doesn’t just write that he waited tables. He writes specifically about how he prepared the dining area for large parties, provided efficient service a peak operating hours, and served multiple tables at once. Sounds like he should add multi-tasking to his skills section, too!

Don't try to over-inflate your past professional experience. Hiring managers will see right through that, and you’ll come off as dishonest. Instead, aim for concrete details. If you worked as a social media intern, don’t just mention that you posted to Instagram. Tell the hiring manager how many likes your best post got. If you worked as a server in a restaurant and helped speed up the ordering process with your efficient communication skills, include that in your resume.

If you have any gaps in your work experience, be ready to explain why. You should also prepare to talk about why you left your last position.

Keep your education section short and sweet

Last, build your education section. Typically, this will just be the highest educational achievement you’ve earned, like a high school diploma, GED, vocational school degree, or college degree. Add the name of the institution you attended and the year you graduated. If you didn’t graduate, include the dates you attended and any relevant coursework you completed. Do not imply that you earned a degree you didn't earn. This will show up in your background check and knock you out of the running.

Unless you’re applying to an educational position or something that involves scholarship, keep the list of academic accolades to a minimum. If you graduated with honors or won a couple of recognizable, prestigious awards, list them here, but resist the urge to tally every accomplishment. If you got a stellar GPA, you can add it here if you’re still building your work experience.

Customer service representative resume sample

Now that we've talked through the specifics of building your resume, let's dive into the customer service resume template below. Simply copy and paste the template into a word processor, then fill in the details with your own information. Here are a few quick tips to keep in mind:

Use keywords from the job description and simple formatting to stand out from the competition (and make it through applicant tracking systems).
Lead with your strengths, especially customer service skills.
Be specific about your relevant experience, and practice anecdotes about your accomplishments that you could share in a job interview.
Keep your resume to one page, maximum. You can elaborate in your cover letter and job interview.

John Jones
123 New Ave.
City, ST 12345
555-555-5555
[email protected]

Professional Summary

Highly motivated individual with strong written and verbal communication skills and customer service experience seeking entry-level position.

Skills

Background in customer service
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Fluent in data entry and data management
Impeccable organizational skills
Excellent time management skills and strong work ethic
Proficient in Microsoft Office, email, and social media

Work Experience

Waiter, XYZ Restaurant
2016 - present, Somewhereville, NY

Create a friendly rapport with guests and guide them through menus
Efficiently and accurately relay orders to kitchen using restaurant's computer ordering system
Prepare dining area for large parties, anticipate needs of incoming guests, and maintain a clean and inviting space
Provide efficient and accurate service to multiple tables of various sizes during busiest times, including holidays

Host, ABC Restaurant
2014 - 2016, City, ST

Greeted all customers in a friendly manner
Answered inquiry calls from customers and booked reservations
Managed and organized waiting list
Handled customer questions and resolved complaints
Assisted waitstaff with various duties to ensure prompt and courteous service

Cashier, Retail Store
2012–2014, City, ST

Provided attentive customer service at registers to ensure customer satisfaction
Handled customer inquiries with attention to detail
Opened and closed registers and handled point-of-sale transactions
Maintained an accurate cash drawer and reconciled money in drawer at the end of each shift

Education

Bachelor of Arts in Communications, State University, 2015

Great fields for people with customer service experience

Now that you've built the perfect resume, it's time to start applying to jobs. Customer service skills make you an excellent candidate in a variety of industries. Here are a few positions and fields you might consider:

Hospitality
Hotels
Caregiver
Retail
Marketing and marketing research
Passenger vehicle driver
Recreation
Food service